In the art of open-end yarn spinning, fiber slivers are introduced into a separating zone established by a combing body having needle or saw-tooth-like projections thereon. The fibers are separated by the action of the combing body, and the separated fibers are discharged into at least one duct which is in communication with the combing body to form a fiber-stripping zone. The discharged separated fibers thereupon flow through the ducts to a spinning chamber disposed at the downstream end of the duct to be spun into yarn.
In order to increase the output and/or to spin yarns formed from different types of staple fibers, one known opened spinning arrangement of this general type employs a single yarn-spinning chamber which is adapted to cooperate with a plurality of combing cylinders that receive fibers from several incident slivers. Each of the combing cylinders communicates with the interior of the yarn-spinning chamber via a separate duct; accordingly, such arrangement is expensive and complicated.
In another known multiple-feed arrangement of this general type, a single conical, rather than cylindrical, combing body is associated with a feed roller arrangement which simultaneously supplies to the body two fiber slivers of different types. In this case, the axis of rotation of the yarn-spinning chamber is coaxial with that of the conical combing body. The reliability of this arrangement is decreased because of the inevitable variations in the peripheral speeds at which the slivers are separated by the conical surface of the combing body, as well as because of the complicated configuration of the duct that propels the separated fibers toward the yarn-spinning chamber. Such decrease in reliability is especially marked at high operating speeds.